One of the problems with bow hunting is tracking down the game after it has been shot. When a bow hunter hits a mammal such as deer or elk with a well placed arrow, the animal can be easily tracked down by following a blood trail, unless it is raining or snowing or for some other reason the blood trail is covered up quickly. Tracking for turkeys or other birds is not so simple because they do not leave a well defined blood trail regardless of how well they are hit. Furthermore, in the case of turkeys, it is very common for the arrow to pass completely through the turkey. While this happens quite often with deer or elk hunting, it almost always happens while turkey hunting unless the arrow has been modified to prevent it from doing so. Accordingly, there is a problem sometimes in finding game which does not leave a well defined blood trail.
The aforementioned problem has been solved to some degree by using string tracking devices which have a spool of string attached to the bow with the other end of the string attached to the arrow. When the arrow is shot, the string unwinds from the spool attached to the bow, and then the string can be followed from the spool to the arrow to find the game. A problem with these devices is that they tend to slow down the speed of the arrow, sometimes causing the archer to shoot low. A further problem with prior art string tracking devices is that they tend to be somewhat cumbersome and the string sometimes catches on brush or the like and unwinds from the spool, thereby rendering them inoperative until the string is rewound so that there is no excess string dragging on the ground or onto bushes or the like.
Similar structures have been used for bow fishing wherein a reel such as that used in fishing has a line thereon which is attached to an arrow. Then when the arrow is shot, the string unwinds from the reel and then the fish can be reeled in by pulling the arrow back to the bow, which is attached to the reel. This system works well for bow fishing, but does not work very well for bow hunting for turkeys or large mammals.
Accordingly, there is a need for string tracking devices which do not have the aforementioned problems associated therewith.